This book investigates the extent to which British agricultural policy and food security preparations in the 1930s effectively positioned the nation for the demands of the Second World War. Alan F. Wilt, a scholar of military and economic history, utilizes government archives and policy records to argue that agricultural planning was significantly more advanced than other sectors of the British economy prior to 1939. The text demonstrates how these specific pre-war measures established a framework that sustained the nation during the conflict and fostered long-term agricultural stability in the post-war era.

Historians and military scholars frequently cite this work as a definitive account of the often-overlooked administrative preparations for the Second World War. The text is recognized for its meticulous use of primary sources and its clear articulation of the intersection between economic policy and national defense.